More important than myself is my growing baby. So, probably before you try to conceive, take your prenatal vitamins. The doctors kept talking about folic acid, for which the recommended dose is 400mg/day for pregnant women. Also very important is DHA, especially for women who do not eat a lot of fish I think. I love fish but just don't make it or eat out that much so I was grateful for this. I took Nature Made prenatal vitamins which had these 2 key items (for me). Also please verify all this information, I'm neither a doctor nor a nutritionist.
In the very beginning, around weeks 7-8, I felt sick for about 2 weeks - I have a couple of theories - 1) I was on a super long flight in economy and that was not fun 2) I overdosed on folic acid (misread the label on the bottle) 3) plain ol' morning sickness. The doctors recommend small bland meals, things like crackers. I was lucky I was not super sick, but during those 2 weeks I barely ate. I bought bags of Hawaiian rolls from Costco, and I think those kept me alive. I was lucky enough not to be sick for too long, but I've never really had a big appetite this whole pregnancy. I changed my diet to eat super healthy, lots of fruit and vegetables. I prepared a lot of food at home. What I was worried about was my lack of protein since I did not enjoy cooking meat, so I would get canned anchovies, or smoked salmon, and when eating out would try to get plenty of protein. A lot of literature says one should not eat raw food, like sushi, but I continued eating a bit of sushi, only from very high quality restaurants. In fact, my doctor said it was fine in moderation, but to avoid things like tuna and swordfish with very high mercury content. I don't really drink, but once in a while would wet my lips with some wine for a small taste. I think improving my diet has been very essential to my good pregnancy, feeling good about myself, not putting on too much weight, and not giving the baby too much crap food.
There are also rules about putting on weight. I maintained 2 OBs while pregnant. One was not happy with my weight gain (too little), the other said I might just be one of those people who don't put on a ton of weight at pregnancy, but she thought it was OK. The former was OK with my trend after our little weight gain discussion, but now at 32 weeks I'm actually finding it hard to put on weight with the baby taking up all my stomach space. I actually only gained 1lb since week 29 and week 32, and was 1lb heavier at week 31 than week 32, so I'm trying to step up my game. What I worry is that I'm burning my own muscle/fat and that could release dangerous toxins into my body which I highly doubt is good for Mots. Weight and I have never been friends, and as I go further into this pregnancy, I don't think our relationship is improving. :-/
Keeping hydrated is important. But how much water? In the beginning of pregnancy, I tried drinking a TON of water, especially since I generally do not drink a lot of water. The problem with this is I couldn't eat much because of lack of stomach space, plus I was getting up like every couple of hours in the middle of the night and already had trouble sleeping as it was, so I would be super tired the next day. I shard this with my doctor and she said people worry about how much water they drink, but really your body will tell you when you are thirsty. So I took her advice, and now drink only when I feel like drinking. It seems to work well, at 32+ weeks, baby is healthy, and I have plenty of amniotic fluid.
I have taken to wearing lots of PJs and workout clothes. OK, the truth is, I pretty much lived in those clothes before I got pregnant. It is nice not having to wear fancy corporate clothes to work. The one big change is I ditched all my jeans, and pretty much exclusively wear leggings for bottoms if I have to look somewhat presentable. I purchased some cute maternity clothes from Zulily, mainly empire-waisted dresses, but have not had the need nor opportunity to wear them yet.
Pregnancy is tiring. Everyone tells me to take it easy, and rest up. Good advice which I did not really take until recently. I still workout a lot (I'll write something about exercise later on in a different post), but have found myself sitting and lying down a lot more recently. My back has started to ache, and I'm sure part of it is due to the extra weight I am carrying around. The other thing one of my best friends told me is that your belly is big, so you have to reach out a lot more to do things. I get the worst pain now doing the dishes, and now when I take the clothes out of the dryer I get Lingon to carry them for me because it is simply just kinda too heavy and hurts my back. Ask for help. There is no shame. Especially from your partner, if you are lucky enough to have one. Growing a baby is serious work.
I feel that every woman, no matter how excited they are about pregnancy and having babies, fear how they look during and after pregnancy. I'm no exception. One thing I fear is getting stretch marks. So far my tummy is still not huge, so no stretch marks as of 32+ weeks. Many people say it's genetic, but others also tell me that things like oils and stretch mark creams can help. Well, I was not going to take any chances, since you can't reverse these kinds of things, so I used a bunch of oils and creams and rubbed them on fairly religiously. I used coconut oil, Palmers oil, Palmers stretch mark cream, and Mustela cream. Other people I knew used Burt's Bees and Clarins products, but what I used was what I was introduced to in the very beginning so I just used them and continued. I'm not sure if I would have gotten stretch marks if I did not use them, but not going to wait to find out! Anyway, it helps to hydrate the body, since I generally get quite itchy even before pregnancy, and I hear that your skin gets itchy from stretching out. So, oil/lotion up! The downside was I was super oily. Half the time I walk around the house naked (true story) waiting for the oil to soak up, and I don't want to sit on any upholstery, so I get tired. But I'm getting more lax with that and laying on blankets and stuff on the couch, since I'm getting more and more tired. I will update more if I get stretch marks, or post pregnancy, to let you know how my skin is doing.
The other thing I fear is diastasis recti, which is the splitting of the abdominals. Again, lots of literature on this, and varying opinions. One of my doctor says everyone's abs split. The other doctor says it's very common. Online articles list a varying percentage of pregnant women whose abs split. Initially, I heard about this from my most favourite publication, people.com. No offense to this brave mama, but I really do not want to look like that. The advice I got for this was no crazy hard core abdominal work and deep twists. The other advice I got from both doctors was not to worry so much for it, generally they join back together weeks after labour, and if not physical therapy can help, as can surgery which is a very not preferred option for me. I'll also discuss this a bit more in an exercise blog.
I found keeping a chart helpful, though I'm a bit obsessive about it. Since a few years ago, I have written down almost everything I eat and the exercise I have done. That's a bit crazy. But what is actually useful, I found, when we were trying to conceive, was charting the dates of my period, when I took the hormone pills I was prescribed, when we had sex, then later on my weight every week. I may have written more about my pregnancy experience, but in general felt really normal for the most part, so there was nothing too notable to discuss.
That's all I have for this post, but if I come up with things I want to add here, I'll update.
In the very beginning, around weeks 7-8, I felt sick for about 2 weeks - I have a couple of theories - 1) I was on a super long flight in economy and that was not fun 2) I overdosed on folic acid (misread the label on the bottle) 3) plain ol' morning sickness. The doctors recommend small bland meals, things like crackers. I was lucky I was not super sick, but during those 2 weeks I barely ate. I bought bags of Hawaiian rolls from Costco, and I think those kept me alive. I was lucky enough not to be sick for too long, but I've never really had a big appetite this whole pregnancy. I changed my diet to eat super healthy, lots of fruit and vegetables. I prepared a lot of food at home. What I was worried about was my lack of protein since I did not enjoy cooking meat, so I would get canned anchovies, or smoked salmon, and when eating out would try to get plenty of protein. A lot of literature says one should not eat raw food, like sushi, but I continued eating a bit of sushi, only from very high quality restaurants. In fact, my doctor said it was fine in moderation, but to avoid things like tuna and swordfish with very high mercury content. I don't really drink, but once in a while would wet my lips with some wine for a small taste. I think improving my diet has been very essential to my good pregnancy, feeling good about myself, not putting on too much weight, and not giving the baby too much crap food.
There are also rules about putting on weight. I maintained 2 OBs while pregnant. One was not happy with my weight gain (too little), the other said I might just be one of those people who don't put on a ton of weight at pregnancy, but she thought it was OK. The former was OK with my trend after our little weight gain discussion, but now at 32 weeks I'm actually finding it hard to put on weight with the baby taking up all my stomach space. I actually only gained 1lb since week 29 and week 32, and was 1lb heavier at week 31 than week 32, so I'm trying to step up my game. What I worry is that I'm burning my own muscle/fat and that could release dangerous toxins into my body which I highly doubt is good for Mots. Weight and I have never been friends, and as I go further into this pregnancy, I don't think our relationship is improving. :-/
Keeping hydrated is important. But how much water? In the beginning of pregnancy, I tried drinking a TON of water, especially since I generally do not drink a lot of water. The problem with this is I couldn't eat much because of lack of stomach space, plus I was getting up like every couple of hours in the middle of the night and already had trouble sleeping as it was, so I would be super tired the next day. I shard this with my doctor and she said people worry about how much water they drink, but really your body will tell you when you are thirsty. So I took her advice, and now drink only when I feel like drinking. It seems to work well, at 32+ weeks, baby is healthy, and I have plenty of amniotic fluid.
I have taken to wearing lots of PJs and workout clothes. OK, the truth is, I pretty much lived in those clothes before I got pregnant. It is nice not having to wear fancy corporate clothes to work. The one big change is I ditched all my jeans, and pretty much exclusively wear leggings for bottoms if I have to look somewhat presentable. I purchased some cute maternity clothes from Zulily, mainly empire-waisted dresses, but have not had the need nor opportunity to wear them yet.
Pregnancy is tiring. Everyone tells me to take it easy, and rest up. Good advice which I did not really take until recently. I still workout a lot (I'll write something about exercise later on in a different post), but have found myself sitting and lying down a lot more recently. My back has started to ache, and I'm sure part of it is due to the extra weight I am carrying around. The other thing one of my best friends told me is that your belly is big, so you have to reach out a lot more to do things. I get the worst pain now doing the dishes, and now when I take the clothes out of the dryer I get Lingon to carry them for me because it is simply just kinda too heavy and hurts my back. Ask for help. There is no shame. Especially from your partner, if you are lucky enough to have one. Growing a baby is serious work.
I feel that every woman, no matter how excited they are about pregnancy and having babies, fear how they look during and after pregnancy. I'm no exception. One thing I fear is getting stretch marks. So far my tummy is still not huge, so no stretch marks as of 32+ weeks. Many people say it's genetic, but others also tell me that things like oils and stretch mark creams can help. Well, I was not going to take any chances, since you can't reverse these kinds of things, so I used a bunch of oils and creams and rubbed them on fairly religiously. I used coconut oil, Palmers oil, Palmers stretch mark cream, and Mustela cream. Other people I knew used Burt's Bees and Clarins products, but what I used was what I was introduced to in the very beginning so I just used them and continued. I'm not sure if I would have gotten stretch marks if I did not use them, but not going to wait to find out! Anyway, it helps to hydrate the body, since I generally get quite itchy even before pregnancy, and I hear that your skin gets itchy from stretching out. So, oil/lotion up! The downside was I was super oily. Half the time I walk around the house naked (true story) waiting for the oil to soak up, and I don't want to sit on any upholstery, so I get tired. But I'm getting more lax with that and laying on blankets and stuff on the couch, since I'm getting more and more tired. I will update more if I get stretch marks, or post pregnancy, to let you know how my skin is doing.
The other thing I fear is diastasis recti, which is the splitting of the abdominals. Again, lots of literature on this, and varying opinions. One of my doctor says everyone's abs split. The other doctor says it's very common. Online articles list a varying percentage of pregnant women whose abs split. Initially, I heard about this from my most favourite publication, people.com. No offense to this brave mama, but I really do not want to look like that. The advice I got for this was no crazy hard core abdominal work and deep twists. The other advice I got from both doctors was not to worry so much for it, generally they join back together weeks after labour, and if not physical therapy can help, as can surgery which is a very not preferred option for me. I'll also discuss this a bit more in an exercise blog.
I found keeping a chart helpful, though I'm a bit obsessive about it. Since a few years ago, I have written down almost everything I eat and the exercise I have done. That's a bit crazy. But what is actually useful, I found, when we were trying to conceive, was charting the dates of my period, when I took the hormone pills I was prescribed, when we had sex, then later on my weight every week. I may have written more about my pregnancy experience, but in general felt really normal for the most part, so there was nothing too notable to discuss.
That's all I have for this post, but if I come up with things I want to add here, I'll update.
